Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Forced Induction Turboing my focus swap

You definately need a chip. Save up and spend money on the SCT proracer package it will give you the ability to change anything in the computer including: PATs, injectors, turn lower 02's off, adjust AF ratio, adjust timing, turn traction control off, adjust fan temps, and data log everything. Anything you can think of can be changed with the SCT software. All of these piggy back systems are going to be a major pain in the @ss. If you ever sell this car you can put the stock tune back in and use the package for another car or pay for another database.

There are so many things in that ECU that your resistors will not change.

We got the turbo to fit with the stock fans. My dad also got his turbo to fit his Focus with it's stock fans and there's less clearance between his engine block and fans than my Cougar.

The Cougar and Contour have the same chasiss. I got a FMIC, you should be able too...no?


Here's a pic of my old intercooler.


We mounted it in the engine bay first, but ultimately it was just a big heat sink. Still did 146whp and 156wtq with the stock fuel and ECU.

I wanted bigger so I got this, a Starion intercooler.


Here's a side by side comparison:

Twice as many fins and about twice as big, though not quite as thick. ULtimately I still think the Starion is a bit small and if I had to do it over I would have shelled out $300+ for a nice, new big intercooler.

It was fine for my dad's purposes, but he remade the end tanks for smoother flow.

It fit perfectly inside the Focus bumper, he painted it black for a stealth look. With that and a tiny IHI RHB5 off a old subaru, he did 136whp and 150tq at 5.5psi on a mustang dyno with a safe tune. He also had stock airbox and stock exhaust.

Exhaust pipe is fine for intercooler piping. I made my piping out of it after finding this site:
http://home.earthlink.net/~turbogus2/cooler.html
I think his prices there are a bit dated though. Still, it was so obvious to do it like that we would have never thought it up on our own.

As for your turbo's donor car not having a cooler....factory turbo cars have forged rods and pistons and lower compression so they can withstand deto better. Also OEMs are cheap and typically go with the minimum they can get away with.

The Zetec's compression is too high and the rods, pistons, and rings too weak to run boost without a cooler, unless you know your tuning. The only guy on the focaljet I know running 9psi, non-intercooled has a Pectel stand-alone for engine managment and he's a former Ford engineer and tuned his car from scratch. He also open tracks it a lot.

http://home.earthlink.net/~turbogus2/intercoolers.html
This guy also did a test of intercooler air resistance using a simple water pressure scale and leaf blower to see how much resistance was seen when air was blown through certain coolers. The dodge cooler had the second worst resistance or the second worse flow. That's why I wanted to ditch it and get a new one. Though modifying it like my dad did to have the end tanks flow straight in/out instead of those lousy bends will improve flow a bit. Eithe way, like I said, if I had it to do over again, I'd have spend serious money on a good FMIC.

Well reality is I will probably never sell this car for a couple of reasons. #1 being its old and has a really low resale value. Some piggy back systems are good some are bad. I tuned my neon with an SAFC and it was speed density which is much harder to tune for a turbo IMO. Sure you can control other things with a special chip, but I already have an installed SAFC2 why would I get rid of it when it works fine. Many people have turbo setups that work fine with the safc but some don't. I will just have to start rich. Some people have got the safc to work fine and others haven't. The main advantage of the SAFC is the ability to make changes on the fly and it stores two data files and can adjust for blow off valves so the engine doesn't stall. I will need a timing retard box for sure. Do a search about mounting an intercooler on these cars most people have gone with water/air intercoolers. That IHI turbo is much smaller then my Garret T3 so I am impressed with the numbers considering how hot the intake charge must have been. I have considered mounting my intercooler as a side mount on the drivers side similar to what DSM's do on the passenegr side, that would expose about 3 feet of intercooler piping to air in front before it even reached the intercooler then cut holes in the back of the fender liner for air flow and use some fans mounted to the intercooler to keep airflow up. I wonder why the dodge intercooler has such bad flow?

I'm thinking it's mainly the design of the end tanks. Just bad bends making for bad flow.

I tried looking through the intercooler and it seemed to be a much different design then the inside of the DSM intercooler I had on my neon. The DSM intercooler had rectangular tubes from one end tand to the other with cooling fins between on the outside. This intercooler is the same except it has cooling fins inside the rectangular tubes as well as on the outside. IMO this is probably why the flow is so much less, but that mesh would certainly increase the cooling capacity of the intercooler at the cost of air flow. Basically the same trade off that occurs with a much larger intercooler. Does this make sense? BTW finished taking apart the turbo and cleaning it out. The new bearings and seals should be here in a few days. Does anyone have a drawing of the inside of a T3 turbo because I believe this one is missing a seal on the air side.

The SAFC2 is unacceptable for tuning boost. I know I did it on a Contour. I also used a MSD digital BTM to control timing. This was before Ford Chips. Once you dial it in at 7psi it will not compensate for higher boost levels. You will be stuck there. Also, there is no stalling if you tune a chip correctly. Don't half ass this or your engine is going to blow. Please trust me on this I've tuned a couple of boosted Fords.

A SAFC2 can be made to work no problem IF it is setup properly. You have to start with bigger injectors and uping the fuel pressure to about 60psi, similar to what VWs run stock. Then you can use the safc to add plenty of fuel when necessary by widening the injector pulsewidth. Sure plenty of people have ruined motors with an SAFC but they didn't have it setup right. Why is it limited to the 7 psi of boost, is it due to the stock MAF cus I don't have a stock MAF? This has been done successfully before and can be done again. Remember everyone saying that the focus engine coulnd't be transplanted into a tour for cheap. I did and it runs fine. Also according to msn carpoint the focus engine has a slightly bogger bore and shorter stroke making it more boost friendly. I believe you had problems with your setup but that doesn't mean I will, just except that not everyone has the sae experience as the last guy. I appreciate the advice but do realize this car is going to be mine until it is worn out so resale isn't an issue, I don't have emmissions here either. My only problem will be timing which we have already discussed. Now about spark plugs, does anyone have any suggestions? I know they need to be copper and colder plugs but how much colder, gap, any actual part #s ect? I prefer NGK plugs for boost as they seam to be more foul resistant.